Monday, December 7, 2015

Destroying ISIS

Barack Obama’s Sunday evening speech on terrorism said little we haven’t heard before and assuaged very few. He correctly pointed out that ISIS wants a major ground war with the United States, a strategy he continues to reject. He also correctly pointed out that our drilling down on American Muslims, absent evidence of nefarious involvement, changes who we are as Americans, reinforces ISIS message that the United States has declared war on Islam (a recruiting bonanza for ISIS) and makes matters much worse. Muslim Americans are part of the solution, he stated, and as Americans we are spending more time turning on ourselves than generating a national cohesiveness to fight a horrific foe.And, most of all, Obama continued his quest to curtail the use of assault weapons, the lack of clear and uniformly applied background checks and the denial of weapons to those on “no fly” lists, all as part of this war on terrorism. But not long on specifics.

But then, would we really want a detailed presentation on exactly what we are doing and will do against ISIS? Should ISIS have those publicly-disclosed strategies? What do the major candidates say? Hillary Clinton, while noting that the conflict against ISIS is at its nascent stages and will develop as time passes, chimed in to support the American consensus that the president could and should do more to combat this Islamic terror group. She suggested the deployment of more special forces to the region and a stepped up bombing campaign.

The Donald suggested that the speech proposed so little, the president needed to be replaced “fast.” Like every other Republican, he totally rejected the proposed gun control restrictions, and repeated his stated (many of which were based on non-existent facts) drilling down on U.S. Muslims and targeting the “they know what’s happening” wives and families of terrorists. He then added that the U.S. needs to shut down Muslims traveling here for any reason. Lindsey Graham delivered a policy directive – declare a full war on ISIS – that ISIS so longs for. Ted Cruz chimed in with a parallel platform, telling supporters he would simply direct the Department of Defense to do whatever was necessary to “destroy ISIS,” while totally rejecting the acceptance of the proposed Muslim immigrants. Jeb Bush rejected Ted Cruz notion of “carpet bombing” ISIS-held lands, suggesting that we better train Iraqi forces to take on the ground war, apparently unaware that Iraqis almost uniformly believe that ISIS and the United States are in cahoots. Marco Rubio wants more internal surveillance and also opposes bringing in these Syrian immigrants. Voters are moving closer and closer to wanting U.S. boots on the ground, forgetting how quickly we tire of the wars we have started.

The massive schism between Republicans and Democrats on gun control may or may not have strong terrorism implications. Lone wolves, who are not directed by ISIS, simply inspired by its message (like the San Bernardino killers), benefit greatly by easy access to their desired tools of death. But even for strikes organized by ISIS itself, there is little reason for them to contemplate smuggling guns across our border (which would make them so much easier to detect) when they can get more than they need at a local gun show with no background checks to worry about. Some reactions have been rather extreme, such asLiberty UniversityPresidentJerry Falwell Jr.whoopenly stated that all of his students should purchase guns and get concealed-carry permits.

Violent crimes, outside of mass shootings, are down, even though two-thirds of U.S. homicides are via guns. Anti-gun control advocates reject what they perceive is a limitation on limit assault weapons, because they believe they have a right to use such weapons against an objectionable government. We just may be turning on ourselves. Gun control advocates got a minor boost on December 6th as the Supreme Court denied a petition for a hearing (which cannot be interpreted as a clear precedent) to reverse a state-level restriction imposed on gun owners. While non-precedential, this refusal to hear the appeal suggests that at least reasonable regulation a local level is probably not violative of Second Amendment rights.

The war on Islamic terrorism is a balancing act, a mission that requires a complex blending of strategies. The flow of terrorist fundamentalism will not stem unless and until the Islamic world itself shuts down the underlying frustration, economic malaise and humiliation that funnels recruits into terror, unless the entire world clamps down on those – many of whom are in the regional oil rich monarchies – who suborn mosques where clerics proselytize holy war and schools (madrassa) that press jihadist fundamentalism and until the West stops succumbing to ISIS’ manipulation that lures them into taking what ISIS can later use as evidence of the West’s “war on Islam.”

The vast bulk of victims in this holy war are Muslims, a fact we conveniently seem to forget in the “no-holds-barred” election campaign. Without truth, facts and rational strategies based on how it really is versus how it is depicted in the press or in the misguided campaigns of under-informed candidates, ISIS will not be defeated. Its pernicious message will not be silenced. We will become increasingly subject to its whims and not our directives. We need to figure out how to stop internal bickering that is clearly the biggest holiday gift we can give ISIS and its sympathizers.

I’m Peter Dekom, and “a house divided” appears to be turning on itself.

Listen now...

Watch Peter Here

Get it today!

Get it here!

Peter's Bio

Peter J. Dekom practices law in Los Angeles and was formerly "of counsel" with Weissmann Wolff Bergman Coleman Grodin & Evall and a partner in the firm of Bloom, Dekom, Hergott and Cook. Mr. Dekom's clients include or have included such Hollywood notables as George Lucas, Paul Haggis, Keenen Ivory Wayans, John Travolta, Ron Howard, Rob Reiner, Andy Davis, Robert Towne and Larry Gordon among many others, as well as corporate clients such as Sears, Roebuck and Co., Pacific Telesis and Japan Victor Corporation (JVC). He has been listed in Forbes among the top 100 lawyers in the United States and in Premiere Magazine as one of the 50 most powerful people in Hollywood .

Mr. Dekom has been a management/marketing consultant, and entrepreneur in the fields of entertainment, Internet, and telecommunications. As a consultant to the state of New Mexico for almost a decade, he was instrumental in creating, writing and implementing legislation to encourage film and television production in the state and supervised the film loan program portion of that incentive structure until the spring of 2011. Mr. Dekom has also provided off-balance sheet, insurance-backed financing for major motion picture studios.

Mr. Dekom served on the board of directors of Imagine Films Entertainment while the company remained publicly traded and was a board member of Will Vinton Studios and Cinebase Software, among others, leaving upon change of ownership. He has also served as a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and Academy Foundation, Board of Directors, Chairman (now Emeritus) of the American Cinematheque, and on the Advisory Board of the Shanghai International Film Festival. He recently served on the Board of Governors for the America Bar Assn.’s Sports and Entertainment Law Section, where he often authored articles, delivered lectures and continues to be an active participant.

The Beverly Hills Bar Association honored Mr. Dekom as Entertainment Lawyer of the Year in 1994, the Century City Bar Association accorded him the same honor in 2004, and the Family Assistance Program named him Man of the Year in 1992 for his work with the homeless. In 2012, the American Bar Association, through its Forum on Sports and Entertainment Law, honored Mr. Dekom with its highest recognition for entertainment lawyers, the Ed Rubin Service Award. Author of dozens of scholarly articles, Mr. Dekom also is the co-author of Not on My Watch; Hollywood vs. the Future (New Millennium Publishing, 2003) with Peter Sealey and author of Next: Reinventing Media, Marketing and Entertainment (HekaRose Publishing Group 2014). He has served as an adjunct professor in the UCLA Film School, a lecturer (entertainment marketing) at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business as well as being a featured speaker at film festivals, corporations, universities and bar associations all over the world.

Mr. Dekom graduated from Yale in 1968 (BA), and graduated first in his class in 1973 from the UCLA School of Law (JD). He is married to Kelley Choate, an MBA and former art gallery-owner who evolved into a renowned micro-collage artist in her own right. He also has a son, Christopher (b. 1983), who is a Duke University graduate, a Chartered Financial Analyst, a 2013 Darden (UVa) MBA graduate, and is currently an executive with a Los Angeles-based media and entertainment company. Chris' wife, Stephanie (a 2013 George Washington University MD grad), is a neonatal pediatrics 'fellow' at a major Los Angeles hospital